"If you don’t like same-sex marriage: vote no. If you are worried about freedom of speech and freedom of religion, vote no; and if you don’t like political correctness, vote no, because this is the best way to stop it in its tracks."

Then on 2GB on Wednesday afternoon, the former PM said encouraged people to vote no if they don't like being "pushed around by lobby groups" and said "politically correct activists" are engaged in "a war on our way of life".

Openly-gay monarchist and former head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority David Flint told 2GB that people could change their genders and, using an "extreme example", go and rape women in bathrooms.

"We now see in the United Kingdom, moving from the decision by the Cameron government to introduce same-sex marriage ... the present government is saying on the basis of that — this is extraordinary — we can now move to another stage, and that is by statutory declaration, you can change your sex. So let me think of an extreme example, if you like to go into women's lavatories and rape women, you can now say 'I'm a woman'. You file a declaration and you become a woman, and you are legally entitled to go into a lavatory or a dressing room. It's an idiotic thing."

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is already arguing that the plebiscite isn't about same-sex marriage but "freedom of speech" and "Safe Schools".

"There is no greater threat to freedom of conscience and freedom of speech than same-sex marriage," ACL managing director Lyle Shelton said in a statement. "Gender fluid ideology is its fellow traveller and the next great ‘step forward’, according to the UK Government, which redefined marriage in 2013."

Josh Taylor is a Senior Reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Sydney.